The Cedar Tree (Love Is Not Enough) Read Online Free PDF Page B

stomped into the house and slammed the screen door. Jon laid the dog's limp form on the opened tailgate of a dusty, black pickup nearby.
    He dropped Lucky's hoof and straightened. "You want me to do somethin' with the dog?"
    "No. One of the boys'll bury him."
    The screen door of the house opened. A gangly boy of about fifteen came out.
    "Tim," Jon yelled, "come get Benny and a shovel and take him down to Katie's graveyard." He turned. "She's got a place where she's buried every dead cat, bird, and dog she's ever come across."
    He winced. "I'm really sorry about the dog. I just didn't see him."
    "He's always been bad to run out in front of vehicles," Jon said with a shrug. "You wantin' to take ol' Lucky for a spin?"
    A few minutes later, Lucky moved out at an easy lope across the irrigated green of the home pasture. The horse's long legs covered a lot of ground, ears flicking at the sound of his voice. Sure-footed and eager to please, the big bay climbed through acres of rocky grazing land to the top of a cedar covered hill and then higher still to the elevation where oak brush grew. He grinned at Lucky's aggressive pleasure in working a group of black cattle with a Flying C brand out of the dense thickets.
    He allowed the cattle to scatter at a small spring and stopped the horse to let him blow. Fishing in his back pocket for his Skoal can, he took a dip, his gaze on the Campbell place spread out far beneath him.
    He shook his head. What a way to introduce himself to the pretty little blonde…Katie. He'd never had that kind of bad luck with a girl before. Well, the thing with Darlene hadn't turned out so good, but he'd never mangled a first impression like that. Katie was younger than the girls he usually went after…might even still be in high school. But something about her almost tempted him to stick around and see what happened. The boyfriend might be a problem, but, then again, maybe not.
    He grinned. He'd gotten around boyfriends before.
    He rode back into the ranch yard to find Tim Campbell waiting at the hitching rail. The boy had an open, likable face with an engaging grin, a shock of curling dark hair, and hazel eyes like his father.
    "Dad had to go help my brothers get the heifers out of his new hay field," Tim said. "What'd you think of Lucky?"
    He dismounted with a creak of saddle leather and tossed the reins over the hitching rail. "Why's your dad sellin' him?"
    Tim's gaze ran over the fender of his saddle with its declaration of his victory in a saddle-bronc competition tooled into the worn leather.
    The boy whistled. "You ride saddle broncs?"
    "Not anymore." He loosened the cinches and pulled off the saddle. "I came off one last summer and blew out my knee."
    "Rotten luck."
    "Yeah."
    "Well, there ain't anything wrong with Lucky," Tim said. "Dad just decided we've got too many horses eatin' their heads off." The boy leaned back against the hitch rail and eyed his pickup. "That's a sweet truck. I like it when the suspension's jacked up like that. Makes 'em look cool. It must have cost a lot."
    "I won it."
    Tim whistled again. "You must've been pretty good."
    "Didn't do too bad." He carried his saddle to his truck and flung it over the side.
    "It's four wheel drive, too," Tim said. "Is it pretty good in the mud? My brother Dave drives a GMC, too, and it's good, but my brother Karl drives a Ford and it'll get stuck on a cow-pie."
    He eyed Tim. "How many brothers you got?"
    The boy grinned. "Just the two, but Mom's gonna have a baby, so I may end up with three." Tim handed him a curry comb.
    "You just got one sister?"
    "Yeah. So you hit on her, huh?"
    He turned to the boy with a raised eyebrow. "That what she said?"
    "She told Mom you'd hit her dog and then hit on her. That didn't go very good, did it?" Tim grinned. "She was pretty mad."
    "It might not have been one of my smoother moves." He grinned wryly and began working on Lucky's sweaty withers with the comb. "She said she's already got a boyfriend."
    "Yeah.